My reflections on the Lincolnshire Food Summit 2024

By Matti Colley

I always enjoy attending Greater Lincolnshire Food Partnership Food Summits because there’s such a collaborative vibe. There’s a real determination for organisations within Lincolnshire to:

• reduce food insecurity and poverty in our communities
• increase access to food education that empowers and inspires people to cook food using fresh ingredients 
• and increase access to healthy, nutritious food locally.

The right to food is a human right and food produced within our food system should be as healthy, nutritious and affordable as possible. Yet too many people are going without decent food:   the Food Foundation found that in June and July 2024, 13.6% of households in the UK were food insecure. How do we change the food system for the better?

The Lincolnshire Food Summit 2024 explored two areas of discussion which are particularly important to help bring about change: food education and empowering people whose voices are often unheard in debates about the food system. 

The importance of good food education and my experience: 

The food education projects that we have here in Lincolnshire are diverse and involve people of all different ages and backgrounds. 

UK charity TastEd is having a national impact on the school curriculum. They have designed a scheme of work encouraging students to try fruit and vegetables in the classroom. Students have the opportunity to try foods that they might not have thought of trying at home and by watching each other grow and enjoy that food it helps build up their levels of self-confidence around food.

1300 primary schools are signed up to receive the scheme of work. They currently have fully funded access to support available so if any primary schools in Lincolnshire want to join, here’s the link for more information: https://www.tasteeducation.com/primary

I feel that it’s important that food education projects help the most in-need of that education. That’s why I have huge respect for Tower Road Academy and Tom Houghton, founder of The Boston Market Garden and The Community Growers CIC who have teamed up to provide gardening at the Boston Market Garden on Tuesdays which benefit students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and students experiencing low self-esteem and mental health difficulties. 

I think of myself when I was younger growing up in a household where we didn’t have very much money to spend on food and my parents being so busy in their jobs that they had to buy convenience foods to make sure me and my brother had enough food to be able to attend school and study for our Key Stage exams. There were times when Mum and Dad would go without food but they rarely told us directly that they hadn’t eaten.

A preference for convenience food has continued to influence my shopping decisions and I’m now at an age where I find it very difficult to try new foods. I studied GCSE Food Technology but my coursework focussed on baking cakes and biscuits and you can’t eat sweet treats all of the time! I do know how to bake but not necessarily cook. 

I do wonder whether attending a fun cooking club when I was at primary school age with my parents would have made it much easier for me to be more adventurous in trying new foods and I do think I’d certainly be more confident following through recipes and cooking meals using fresh ingredients. It would be fantastic to see parent and child cooking clubs and social eating clubs across Lincolnshire. 

I also have to say I was particularly inspired to hear from Rob from GoGro CIC, who runs food education courses in Lincoln and West Lindsey such as slow cooker recipe courses. There have been people attending the courses who have tried coriander for the first time or learned that they could make a decent chocolate fudge cake in the slow cooker (that was me!) 

Rob says that: “the youngest person who has taken part in our courses was 5 and the oldest was 105”. How amazing is it that GoGro courses have such interest and reach! 

GoGro are looking to help community groups and organisations looking to put on their own healthy food education courses- you can contact them for more information via their website form here: https://gogro.org.uk/contact

Helping people experiencing food insecurity: 

I think there are a lot of opportunities for anti-poverty and food-based organisations to reach out to people experiencing mental health and emotional wellbeing difficulties in our communities. It can be very isolating living with severe anxiety or depression: you may not see a family member or friend for days on end and if you don’t feel like you want to or can leave your house it can be difficult to reach out for support such as receiving food parcels. 

If you don’t have any immediate family or friends who have the time to help you, then you might end up living on a very restricted, basic diet, relying heavily on ultra processed foods. I have experienced very high levels of anxiety and I’m glad my parents have been here to support me through it but I recognise how lucky I was to have them here for me.

Shame and stigma associated with being seen to be reaching out for support with food and household essentials can contribute heavily to lack of engagement with organisations. If your family has “just managed” with not having much food over generations or nobody in your family has ever asked for support with accessing  food then the feelings of shame are increased tenfold. You may worry about what your friends, neighbours and colleagues will think if they see you getting support. 

We need to do all we can to fight against prevailing stigmas around accessing food support. Nobody should feel they have to go without food and household essentials and suffer in silence, regardless of where they live.

Empowering people whose voices are unheard in debates around food system change:

I was privileged to take part in an afternoon panel about empowering people whose voices are so rarely heard in debates about changing the food system. 

It was interesting to hear from Andy at Trussell Trust and Steve from the Centre for Social Justice talking about projects they have running to increase grassroots engagement and inform campaigning. 

However, I do think that we need to have a serious discussion about democriticising campaigning. The lived experiences of people across our county can and I think, must, inform the development of projects and campaigns that aim to change the food system. It encourages buy-in across communities which then improves overall public health. 

One way of democraticising campaigning is by increasing engagement with Generation Z and Generation Alpha in schools, colleges and universities in Lincolnshire. Whilst food education is important, it should also be acknowledged that there are a lot of young people out there who know a lot about the food system and want to help be a part of changing it, but they may not know who to talk to to help get their thoughts and campaign ideas out there. Make no mistake, there are young people who know how to create eye-catching content. Just look at the viral videos on TikTok! 

I’d like to make sure that young people from all backgrounds feel they have the tools and the confidence to establish campaigns and create content. In an ideal world, class background would not be a barrier, but the digital divide does still affect people in Lincolnshire, especially in rural areas. 

I was so happy to hear about the Young Farmers Gardening Club proposal being developed by The Community Growers CIC, where young people from Boston and surrounding areas will be able to get involved in horticulture, using “No Dig” and Organic principles. 

It’s not just the younger generations who need to be included in project creation and campaigning. When we have time, those of us with knowledge and expertise in marketing and PR should be willing to work alongside people from disadvantaged backgrounds to empower them to use their voice to get involved. They include:

• People who are experiencing homelessness 
• People who are neurodiverse
• People who have learning difficulties and differences
• People who are experiencing mental health and emotional wellbeing problems
• Members of the LGBTQIA+ community
• People who have migrated recently to Lincolnshire from all around the world
• Refugees and asylum seekers

So yes, we need to democratise campaigning. We must show that we value their contributions, whether to project design or campaign design. 

Not everyone will agree that veganism is the future. Not everyone will agree that we need more food education projects. Regardless, we must hear what people have to say. 

So what can we do at a local level to help democratise campaigning?

• Set up meetings in the local community, promoted online via social media channels like TikTok and YouTube and websites but also offline through posters, word-of-mouth
• Look for volunteers who would be willing to help create content and get the word out about projects and campaigns
• Encouraging people also participating in projects and campaigns to share their views, whether verbally or through drawings 
• Networking at free events

I’m currently exploring ideas to hold Food Conversations along the lines of those already facilitated by the GLFP in September and across the UK with the support of the The Food, Farming and Countryside Commission. Look out for more information about this next year and if you’d like to help get the ball rolling, please feel free to email me at mcolley1113@gmail.com. 

I want to say a huge thank you to individuals and organisations across Lincolnshire who are doing all they can to help to reduce food insecurity and increase access to healthy, nutritious food locally. Having witnessed great projects for myself happening at Mint Lane Wellbeing Hub and hearing about the projects being facilitated by organisations such as GoGro CIC I genuinely believe there is hope for the future.  There are fantastic opportunities for Gen Z to get involved in volunteering for these projects and for them to then leverage their knowledge of social media to get the word out there. We can all be part of the change, if we want to be.